I have an 11-week-old English Cocker Spaniel, and we’ve been together for about two weeks. I’ve been crate training since day one, and he does really well at night, either sleeping through the night or only waking up once to go to the bathroom. His crate is in another room, covered and low white noise playing.
During the day, he has enforced naps and handles those pretty well for his age too. He’s usually awake for about an hour, then sleeps for 2–3 hours. When I first put him in the crate, he’ll bark or whine for about a minute, but then he settles down. I live in an apartment, and for naps I keep his crate in a separate room with it covered and some white noise playing (again, not too loud).
The issue is that he sleeps fine as long as I’m quiet. He’s also fine if the TV is on or if I leave the apartment, since it stays relatively quiet. But if I make noise, like opening cupboards, cooking, or really doing anything around the apartment, he wakes up and starts barking, whining, crying, or howling until I stop.
I’m not sure how to help him become less sensitive to normal household noise while also ensuring he’s actually getting sleep.
And for reference, when he’s awake he does not settle. That’s why the enforced naps and covered crate in a separate room is important because if he sees me and is awake outside of the crate, he will go go go. I also have a pen but when he’s in it and can see me he just barks and cry’s and whines, doesn’t ever settle.
submitted by /u/kindofthatgirl
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